in which I talk about food and make myself hungry!

Well! Today all the new freshmen and transfer students arrive! The excitement (and nervousness) is palpable! A word to freshmen — IT WILL BE OK. Once you move in, things start to feel surprisingly normal.

Today I’m going to talk about food — it’s one of my favorite topics, and as it is almost noon, and almost time for lunch, one which weighs heavily on my mind. If you’re looking at college, it’s also probably a question that’s on your mind! Which cafeteria has the best food? Will I be able to cook for myself? Where do I get snack food? How do I deal with special dietary concerns like staying a vegetarian or vegan? What are my meal plan options?

Here at Messiah, there’s Lottie Nelson Dining Room, where most of the freshmen and sophomores eat every meal. Every meal has a vegetarian option, whether that be tofu to put on your salad, stuffed shells instead of chicken fingers, hummus, bagels, peanut butter, etc. Sometimes it’ll take you a little ingenuity to put together a fully-balanced meal, but so does cooking for yourself. Being a vegan is more complicated, and it’s harder for me to tell you that there are fully vegan food options at every meal (a friend once told me that even saltine crackers, seemingly so innocent, were out of bounds for a vegan. Who knew?). There’s certainly things like the hummus, peanut butter, the option of soy milk, and lots of vegetables (cooked and fresh) and fruits available.

The Falcon Express, on the lower level of Eisenhower Campus Center, is a convenient breakfast-and-lunch joint. It also deserves the word “express” in its moniker; it’s the best place to get a quick bite in between classes. They just rennovated it, and re-wrote some of its menu options. Now it has panini! And espresso drinks! As well as a “Fresh Home Made Soups and Bread Bar,” which features vegan and vegetarian options.

Larsen Student Union is open almost any time you can think of — except weekend mornings. When I know I’ll be stuck in the studio working until 1 or 2 a.m., I’ll swing by the Union Cafe before it closes at midnight and grab some pizza or a sandwich. Their burgers are delicious (and they have mushroom burgers which are really quite yummy as well). They have shakes, smoothies, ice cream, half gallons of milk, snack foods, cookies, every beverage you can think of, deli sandwiches — well, I’ll stop the list there. It’s a big place, ideal for studying with a group and eating at the same time. It’s also a great place for game nights, since you can check out games from the upstairs student programs desk. There are also good odds you could hear a concert at least once a week while you eat!

You will have a kitchen on your floor if you’re in a residence hall, so yes, you can satisfy those brownie-baking urges. Just be sure to label your food and wash your dishes! I hear RAs have instituted a no-mess-tolerance policy, and might throw away your plates. The C-Store on campus stocks pasta, boxed mixes, microwaveable foods, some vegetables, oil, single eggs, cookies, snack foods, and beverages ranging from soda to half gallons of milk. If you don’t need a full grocery trip or don’t have a car, it’s a great option.

Your standard meal plan at Messiah will give you “flex dollars” that you can spend anywhere, in addition to all your main meals in Lottie. But for upperclassmen in particular, there are alacarte meal plans with a certain balance that can be used at either the Falcon, the Union, or the C-store, and it is very convenient. I have a smaller alacarte plan that serves as a supplement to the dinners I cook for myself in my apartment.

Which brings me to cooking for yourself. Particularly if you’re a vegan, a vegetarian, have crazy lots of allergies, or are just super concerned about eating locally or organically produced food, the Messiah area is a great location. And the kitchens in the apartments are good kitchens! So those of us who are getting interested in cooking really good food can have a hay day.

There’s a Ten Thousand Villages about 5 minutes from campus where you can buy fair-trade coffee and chocolate. Or if you’re interested in broadening your taste horizons with tea or coffee, there’s One Good Woman about 15 minutes away.

The West Shore Farmer’s Market is a great place to get produce and meat, honey, coffee, and lots of other surprising things for your grocery list. It also houses bakeries, places to get sandwiches and soups, and some craft-ish shops upstairs. Not everything is local or organic, but if you ask around, you’ll figure out which products are. The people with stands or shops there are generally very communicative, friendly, and helpful. I find delicious cheese from Lancaster there and unusual things like ground lamb, which I can’t find at my local Weis or Giant.

A whole foods market about half an hour away provides options for vegans, vegetarians, or organic-vores. I haven’t been there yet, but it’s definitely on my list of things to explore.

The local Karns, right across from the West Shore Farmer’s Market, carries milk from Trickling Springs Creamery, which is located about an hour away (and their cows are grass-fed and aren’t given antibiotics or hormones, so it’s very organic). I haven’t found a place that carried Trickling Springs’ eggs, yogurt, cheese, butter, or ice cream yet, but I’m hoping. Maybe if enough of us ask about it at Karns, they’ll start carrying it!

And if you’re interested in eating free-range or grass-fed meat, this is a good area, too! Although you’ll have to figure out how far you’re willing to drive, and probably ask around a lot. Some professors have friends who sell free-range eggs, for instance. I like to get eggs and chicken from a farm near my fiance’s house in Lebannon. That’s further away, of course, but for us it works out — his family stocks up on the food, and when we visit, we get it from them.

If you’re simply interested in one-stop shopping, the promised land of groceries, including lots of foreign food you can’t find anywhere else (for instance, supplies to make your own sushi-with-cooked-fish, edamame, and seaweed salad), there’s also a Wegman’s about half an hour away.

Can you tell I’m really passionate about good food? I think I inherited my grandmother’s Mennonite urge to feed people a lot of the best food I can make.

4 days until classes start!

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